Bitter Showers, Tiny Flowers
by eternalwhiteiris
Summary: It's been a while since there have been any attacks for the Sailor Senshi to deal with, and the girls are enjoying the peace, in college now. But who is this strange little girl who has been following them around?And what does Usagi really know about her?
1. Winter Weirdness

Disclaimer: All I own is the computer I'm writing on, the parrot sitting on it, and the crazy ideas in my crazy head!  
  
It was almost springtime, a time where the gray clouds that covered the sun should be pouring down the rain that caused the flowers to coat the ground in April, but in the Juuban district of Tokyo, winter had not yet released it's grip. A cold, dry wind blew around the coats and hair of a group of teenagers and chapped any exposed skin, but they were determined to enjoy the weekend, their one break a week.   
  
Tomoe Hotaru, not really worrying about her own short hair, had a tight hold on both of Tsukino Usagi's pigtails, as did Usagi herself. Both girls huddled together for warmth, Luna's furry black body in between them, and all three giggled at some peice of story or gossip.   
  
Chiba Mamoru and Mizuno Ami stood together, the wind or cold not seeming to touch them, but it did try to blow the notes they held out of their hands as they compared notes on their shared anatomy class. Kino Makoto and Aino Minako stood behind them, making faces about school as they absent-mindedly stroked Artemis.   
  
Tenou Haruka and Kaoi Michiru were both quite warm enough, as they both cuddled, lagging slightly behind the group and laughing at some little joke between them.   
  
They refused to not smile and laugh at all, but the cold bleakness of the day had taken hold of the group. On most days, the would be running around in the park, climbing trees and acting like they were little kids again, eating Makoto's food, but today they were barely paying attention to anything around them. Other than them, the park was empty.   
  
"Oh! What beautiful kitties!" the whole group snaped to sudden attention at the squeel from behind them, and spun around to see a little girl behind them, a little startled when Luna and Artemis jump neatly into her arms, purring loudly as she stroked them both behind the ears. "They're so sweet, too!" The girl speaking looked about seven, but with a skinny smallness to her, and extremely long auborn hair pulled into two pigtails, one on each side of her head and both looped around behind her head, kind of resembling messy buns that had fallen out, only held at the ends, and it was tied with purple ribbon that had tiny teal flowers on one side of her head and the exact opposite pattern on the other. Tiny wispy tendrils of hair constantly slipped in front of her quite pale face and her large, laughing eyes; the right one a violet color, the left bright green. A thin half-healed scar ran from the middle of her left cheek down into her thick sweatshirt. "Are they always this friendly?"   
  
Usagi and Minako slowly shook their heads. Ami laughed. Rei and Hotaru both stared at her oddly.   
  
The strange girl caught the suspicious looks that Rei and Hotaru were giving her, her smile slowly fading and her left eye slowly turning a light slate color. She unconciously played with the loose baby hairs around her face and bit her lower lip, then realized that she was doing that and quickly shakes her head, both eyes suddenly violet.   
  
"Ibie!" A short but well-muscled man somewhere in his early twenties, with short golden hair and bright blue eyes called behind her, and she turned around with a huge grin on her face.   
  
Turning back towards the group, she gently pried Luna's mouth off of the strange pin she was wearing, a tiny upturned crescant moon made out of blue, purple, and teal ribbons on a background of even tinier asteroids, and hands Luna to Usagi and Artemis to Minako, her left eye once again green and her grin back. "Thank you for letting me play with your kitties, sorry to bother you!" she giggled sweetly, "Byebye!" And ran off to grab the man's arm and skip away, half-dragging him.   
  
"How weird." Makoto mumbled, half to herself.   
  
Haruka idly fliped some of her short hair. "Well, there's always going to be weird people out there."   
  
Minako glared at them, trying to fold her arms and more than half squeezing Artemis in the process, "Hey! She's just a happy little girl, there's nothing wrong with that! And besides, Art and Luna wouldn't have jumped on her if she was bad, right?" She looked down at Artemis for confirmation to her words, just then noticing how she was holding him. "Oh, sorry Arty. Anyway, what did get into you there? You're never so friendly to me!"   
  
Still trying to catch his breath, Artemis mumbled a comment for Minako's ears alone, "You're never so nice to me."   
  
Seeing Minako's quickly reddening face, Makoto quickly stepped in. "No, no, I meant her left eye. It couldn't seem to decide what color it was. And was that her brother back there? Her dad?"   
  
"I would imagine her brother. He didn't seem old enough to be her father. But he did look like her, even with different hair. And yes, her eye was odd." Ami looked thoughtfull. "And I think it was blind, too."   
  
"She was blind?" Minako was genuinely confused. "But she seemed to see just fine!"   
  
"No," Ami giggled, "I meant just her left eye."   
  
"Why do you say that, Ami-chan?" Michiru inclined her head towards Ami, curious about the strange child.   
  
"Well, ... " Ami blushed as she notices most of the groups' eyes on her, but cleared her throat and continued. "First of all, a milky film covered all of it, the kind that forms when certain types of blindness occur later in life. Secondly, the whites of her eyes had a slight grayish tint, as if her brain had realized that that eye no longer worked and cut of the blood supply. Also, the pupil, the little black dot which draws in the light to see, was almost non-existant."  
  
"Wow." Minako's eyes were open wide. "Amazing, Ami-chan."   
  
"What, you mean her incredible amount of medical knowledge?" Haruka ruffled Ami's hair like an older brother. Or older sister, in this case.   
  
Minako smirked. "No, I mean the fact that she explained something medical and I actually understood it!"   
  
All but Usagi, Rei, and Hotaru laughed at Minako's unexpected joke. All the rest of the eyes turned to the three together after they noticed their silence.   
  
"Hotaru-chan? Odango? Rei? You guys okay?" Haruka turned to the three.   
  
Hotaru forced a smile, not ready to share her thoughts. "Of course I am, Haruka-papa."   
  
Both Haruka and Michiru looked at their adopted daughter questioningly, noticing the lie but not going to call her on it, then turned to Rei as she started speaking.   
  
"Her aura was ... funny." Rei looked almost confused, but her face was drawn in deep thought. "I can't explain it. I don't think she's bad, but I think we should keep an eye on her. She's much more powerful than she looks."   
  
"I'm glad you're being more cautious, Rei. Wouldn't want another incident like the time when you read Usagi's aura and then attacked her." Ami said sarcastically.   
  
Most of the group either snickered of looked shocked at Ami's quite unexpected tease, but Rei actually nodded, her face grimly serious. "Actually, I think this is much like that time."   
  
Mamoru inadvertently cut her off, turning to Usagi, who had just bent over with her head in her hands, trembling slightly. "Usako, are you allright?"   
  
"Y-yes." Usagi sounded neither sure of the answer nor sure of herself. "Just a little headache." But she stumbled even as she was saying that, and her voice was quite weak and strained from the obvious effort she was putting into walking.   
  
"Headache, huh?" Haruka had her hands on her hips.   
  
"Come here, my princess." Mamoru picked her up in his arms, cradling her gently and holding her close to his body. "That better?" It was all Usagi could do to nod weakly as they continued walking.   
  
"Hey, sorry to break the mood here," Haruka just snickered lightly at that comment, who would want to stay in such an akward mood! "But didn't that older guy, her older brother maybe? look a lot like Usagi? And that kid's hair reminded me of Odango's odangos."   
  
Usagi moaned slightly and hung limp in Mamoru's arms, totally unconscious.   
  
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Ah... not really that good. I think that the next couple of chapters are better though. And they will be here soon, I promise! And thank you, wingnut, for reminding me about my tense issues. I really do need to work on this. This rendition better? 


	2. Nightmares and the New Moon

Chapter 2 - Nightmares and the New Moon  
  
Note: Words with //slashes\\ around them are thoughts or dreams.  
  
The girl from earlier looked not at all like the small child right now, with her long hair just falling loose and her face pursed in such deep thought. She gave off an emotional maturity and wisdom far beyond her obvious physical maturity. And paced in circles. "That was her, it was! I know it. I would know her anywhere! And Luna!" She stopped her pacing to cough slightly and gaze at the golden-haired man with begging eyes, her left eye changing from cocoa to blood red to light blue every few minutes. "Onii-san, you have to listen to me! There's no doubt about it! It was her!"   
  
He gently lifted her up, placing her in her bed, smoothing her hair and pajamas and ignoring his own messy gold-blonde hair and the same ruffled outfit he had worn all day. He just kissed her forehead, his sky-blue eyes glistening with unshed tears. "You need sleep, Hana-chan. My little Ibie."  
  
"You do too, big brother. And quit treating me like a little girl!" But her tone was quiet and weak, and broken by another, much harder cough and a large yawn, her heavy eyelids slowly closing over two violet eyes. "Promise me you'll sleep tonight."   
  
"I'll try, on both acounts." He mumbled and kissed her pale forehead, but she was already asleep. He looked at her peaceful sleeping form, so calm, with no pain on her tiny body when she's asleep, and then up at the moon, a tiny splinter of a new moon tonight, dimmer than some of the stars in the sky, but still so beautiful, and the dam in his eyes broke open. He sobbed quietly behind his hands, scooping up his sister's sleeping body in his hands to rock with her softly, thinking of his two sisters. One of them dead, one of them only half alive. And would have been better off dead than in the constant pain she was forced to endure. And now this...   
  
All a search for her dead sister will do is cause her more pain! Why can't she see that? Her sister is dead, dead by her own hand! Dead! Why can't she accept that? Why can't she accept that his beautiful twin is dead? Dead. And he is not about to lose his baby sister as well, selfish as that might be. He held her closer, his cheek lying on hers.   
  
A few tears fell from Hana's sleeping eyes and slid down her face to mix with the ones that had fallen from his sobs that racked both of their bodies.   
  
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Hotaru laid awake. She was quite tired, and should have been asleep hours ago, but she couldn't help thinking about the boy and the girl she met today. They seemed famillar, somehow, but she couldn't remember how. Somehow, her mind didn't seem to want to remember. It was something bad. Not like bad people, just very bad memories. But how could they be worse than the destruction of the moon kingdom? And she remembered that. Her tired eyes drifted outside her open window, to the gentle and tiny new moon, and she somehow found comfort in that. Gracious sleep finally overcame her.   
  
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Mamoru looked at Usagi laying besides him in his bed and carressed her cheek. He should have brought her back to her dorm room, but he just couldn't. He had to see for himself that she was okay. Or not okay, he thought sadly as he watched long trails of tears trickle out of her sleeping eyes.   
  
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Usagi could hear her Mamo-chan shifting next to her. She could tell he was awake, and was pretty sure that he thought her to be asleep. She was so glad that he brought her here tonight instead of her home, she always felt safe next to him, and right now she wanted to feel as safe as possible. But not even the soft gentle carress she felt, an action from him that usually makes her so happy, could stop those painful tears from flowing.   
  
Those two they met today... something happened to them. Somthing horrible. Usagi could feel pain radiating off them in waves, oh such pain! What could have happened to them so horrible? But what she really wanted to know was why she was connected to them at all. She had to be, somehow. How else could she feel somehow that she loves them both deeply?  
  
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//"I want to go to my sisters! Why won't you let me go to my sisters?" A young boy with long silver hair and angry blue eyes shouts into nothing, struggling against the metal shackles that connected him to the wall, and by the bruises that covered his body, he had been struggling vainly for quite a while. "Something is happened, something awful, I can tell! For the love of the Moon, let me see them!"   
  
"See them?" A strange, almost serpentine, yet somehow cracked and rough as an age-worn stone came from nowhere, causing the boy to shudder in disgust. "That I might be able to do, for a little while." A truly evil and truly mad cackle fills the room, and a small flat screen appears to float in front of the boy, his eyes growing as they watched it.   
  
"NOOOO!!! Rena, Rena!" he screams, fighting even harder to get free, a few drops of his blood spraying the room as he thrashes, but still getting no more freedom. "I must go to her, I must go to them! Let me go to them!"   
  
"Ungrateful brat." the voice reverberates around the tiny cell. "I let you see them, and I don't even get so much as a thank you for it! Oh no, all you want is more, more, more."   
  
But he didn't listen to it. His eyes grow even wider, and he screams his dispair for anyone within a few miles to hear. A golden moon glows on his forhead, bathing him in a white light that grew brighter as his blood-curdling scream went on, until he could no longer be seen. When the light fades, he was far in the heavens, nothing around him but small fragments of stone and the light of far off stars. He fixes his gaze on the moon, pulsing with a blinding light, and a pure white suit forms on him, his cape lined with silk that shone and switches between gold and silver, and white eagle's wings stretches out from underneath the cape. His face set in a determined way, he yells into the darkness, "Hang on, Rena, Ibie, I'm coming! Just wait for me!" and flies through the skies, pulsating moon growing brighter as as the dim lights of stars fade into blurs besides him.\\  
  
Rei sat up straight in her bed, the odd dream waking her up with a feeling of dread and nausea in the pit of her stomach. She looked outside her window, and saw that Phobus and Deimos had pushed open the shutters and were bathed in the gentle white light of the new moon.   
  
She pushed herself up, feeling oddly shaky, and stumbled into the bathroom, where she quickly loses both the nautious feeling and her dinner, and washed her mouth out.   
  
She then walked to the front door, calling the two crows inside. Although her grandpa forbade it, she felt that she just needed her gaurdians with her tonight, and with both of their bodies snuggled up against her, she fell asleep, not even noticing how they kept switching from their crow forms to their human forms and back again all throughout the night.   
  
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Another short chapter, I know! I have the next one, and will soon have the one after that, but I'm holding them all captive until I get a review or two! Don't want to put these up for nothing... 


	3. And Now My Heart is in Your Hands

Chapter 3 - And Now My Heart is in Your Hands  
  
The sun was slowly hiding the light of the moon, golden light pouring in through the window that Mamoru had forgotten to close and illuminating both of the slowly awakening forms. Neither Usagi nor Mamoru remembered falling asleep, or being in each others arms, but there they were, holding each other tightly. By the waterspots covering the window and the humidity outside, it had rained last night, and now the sun was slowly beginning to take it's place in the sky, burning away the fog and warming the air. It was a beautiful morning, and a perfect sunrise, but the only beautiful sight that Mamoru and Usagi saw were each other. They gazed into each other's eyes, Mamoru holding Usagi's face in his hands, Usagi slowly tracing down his muscular body, with his shirt off in the way he likes to sleep. Her slender, graceful fingers traced down his neck, over his shoulders and his pecs, down his perfectly toned stomach and up again, stopping with a start on the hard lump of scarred flesh over his heart. She kisses his scar, his lips, and his eyes, speaking softly so as not to wake up Luna asleep next to her. "You still have that mark, Mamo-chan?"   
  
His hands slid under his shirt that she was wearing, gently cupping her breasts but then moving to where an almost indentical scar laid above her heart. "As do you."   
  
"Yes..." Her sky-blue eyes looked sad momentarily as she remembered. "From when we fought Metallica. Both times." Her hands move away, to be clasped in her lap.   
  
He picked up her hands, holding them in his. "Well, we're alive, that has to mean something good." He began kissing all of her fingers, and she laughs slightly as it tickled. "Through all of these battles, even with Galaxia, we are alive. You know that means something good." He stops as he gets to her left ring finger, the one wearing the ring he gave about five years ago, what seems so long ago. "Usako?" He closed his eyes and grasped both of her hands in his.   
  
She looked up at him, now smiling sweetly, he always knows how to make her happy. She held both of his hands in response. "Yes, my Mamo-chan?"   
  
"Do you remember when I gave you this ring?"   
  
"Yes, of course, Mamo-chan. It was right before you got on the plane to go to America, forever and a day ago, it seems." She smiled, but her face then droped again. "Right before Galaxia killed you."   
  
"Remember, alive!" Her smile returned. "Well, due to that interuption, I was unable to ask you the most important question I can think of." He pulled her up and slid off the bed, dropping to one knee and kissing the ring. Her face looked stunned as she realized what he's about to ask. "Tsukino Usagi, light of my life, and love of my heart," he paused, smiling and blushing, "will you marry me?"   
  
"Oh!!!" She grabed Mamoru in her arms, dancing around in circles with him and laughing with pure joy. Mamoru's Sunshine looked brighter than he had ever seen her. "Oh, Mamo-chan, Mamo-chan! Yes, I will! I will!!!" They both fell onto the bed in each others arms, laughing and crying with joy.   
  
"I love you, my Usako." Mamoru whispered when they had settled down, thinking again about how incredibly beautiful his Usagi is, even in the shirt he had worn the day before, and how kind and gentle she is, how soft her skin and hair was, and how her laughter and her happy voice was like music. The only thing he ever wanted at that moment, was for her to be happy. He must be the luckiest guy in the world for this angel in his arms to be his.   
  
"I love you too, my Mamo-chan." Snuggling against his firm naked chest, Usagi thinks once again about how strong and handsome he is, how warmly and gently he held her in his arms, how his eyes were so beautiful, and how warm, happy, and safe he made her feel. She must be the most specail girl in the world for this prince who held her to be hers.   
  
"What is going on here? You both woke me up." Luna yawned widely, looking at the two on the bed out of the corner of her eye. "Usagi, I am amazed! You're awake this early!"   
  
Usagi was too happy to let Luna's tease touch her right now, and just laughed and cried harder. "No, Luna, not Usagi, not soon! Mrs. Mamoru Chiba!"   
  
Luna fell off the bed.   
  
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Hana carefully peeked at her exhausted brother. Good. He was still asleep. As mean as it may seem, she was secretly happy that he didn't sleep much last night, because that meant he'll still be asleep for a while this morning. She felt extremely happy for some reason, and it gave her a burst of energy. Very carefully, she reached into the pocket of the clothes from last night which he was still wearing, pulled his wallet out of them, and his bus pass out of that.   
  
//There are advantages of this body\\, she thought to herself, having to stiffle a giggle as she snuck back into her room to wash up and get dressed, //for example, I don't have to buy my own bus pass!\\ Shutting the door behind her, she fully broke out into giggles, making it ever harder to brush out her already difficult hair, being quite thick and longer than she is tall. But she does get it done, grimacing slightly that she doesn't have Seth's help on this one thing, and throws on a quick sweatshirt and jeans, washing her face and brushing her teeth, turning off the alarm to her house and carefully opening her window, with a thought of happiness that she keeps it well-oiled and that the balcony is near her window. It was an easy jump from out her open window to the balcony, and from there it was quite simple to uncoil the huge heavy rope she has there and slide down the five stories of their apartment complex to the ground. She swung on it at the bottom, and propeled herself over the wall, landing light as a cat. She had to sit momentarily to catch her breath, cursing her never-healing injuries, but after that she saunters off, whistling to herself as she walked to the bus stop. Their sister is alive, why can't Seth beleive that? She's alive and very happy right now, and headed towards the park!   
  
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Barely awake, Makoto grabed the ringing phone to her ear before she threw it across the room. "Moshi moshi?"   
  
Ami was on the other line, laughing for no real reason.   
  
"What's up, Ami-chan?"   
  
"Oh..." She stoped laughing enough to talk. "Usagi just called me. She was so happy! You know how contagious her laughter is." Although Ami couldn't see it over the phone, Makoto was nodding. She did know. "Anyway." Ami cleared her throat, done laughing for now. "She said she has something very important to tell us, and she wanted to know if we could meet in the park where we were last night in a little while, so she could tell us."   
  
Makoto went silent for a while, staring out the window that looks out onto the balcany of her apartment complex. It looked like a little girl was hanging on a rope outside! But that was impossible, her apartment was on the fourth floor! She closed her eyes and vigourously shook her head, and when she opened her eyes again, there was no girl or rope. Must be more tired than she thought, to be seeing things.   
  
"Mako-chan? Hello? Are you there, Mako-chan?"   
  
"Oh! Sorry, Ami-chan. Yeah, sure, why not." Although she might be the only one, Makoto was quite curious about that girl they met, and hoped they could see her again. "I'll be there."   
  
"Oh good! Usagi also called Rei and Haruka, and Rei is calling Minako. We'll probably all be there. See you then, Mako-chan!" As she hung up the phone, Ami silently hoped that the strange young girl or her brother would be there again.   
  
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Seth slowly woke up, yawning and sheilding his grainy eyes from the sun. He cursed silently to himself, just then noticing that he had slept in, and cursed again, not at all silently when he saw his wallet laying on the floor. He dove off the couch, almost running into his little sister's closed bedroom door before he could stop himself, and has to calm down before he could knock gently. No response. He knocked again. "Hana-chan?" Still no response. Not nearly as calm anymore, he pounded on her door. "Hana, are you in there?" After still no response, he pratically knocked the door off the hinges and swore again, not quietly at all as he sees her gone and her window open.   
  
Running back to where his wallet is, he opened it slowly, afraid of what he might find. "Shit!" Not bothering to brush his hair, wash up, or fix his clothes, he ran out the door, barely even bothering to lock it, and propeled himself down the stairs, almost flying in his haste. He knew exactly where his baby sister was, the only problem was that he would have to get there on foot. That little brat stole his bus pass!   
  
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Thank you everyone who has been kind enough to review! Please review more, as they're always accepted and wanted, both positive or negative! Please tell me what you think! What can I do to make it better?  
  
Still more chapters soon to come! 


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